Resources >> Advocacy >> Pennsylvania

 Pennsylvania

Key Facts and Trends

Major Reports

Early Childhood Education

The Rights of Students

Policing and Juvenile Justice

Key Facts and Trends

• Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Addressing the Disparate Discipline of Students of Color, Students with Disabilities, and LGBTQ Students in Pennsylvania, ACLU of PA testimony to the Pennsylvania Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, November 19, 2019

• Supporting Pennsylvania Students: The Choice, fact sheet on arrests and school staffing ratios

• Which Pa. Schools Reported the Most Arrests in 2018-19?

• What Do Philadelphia’s Students Want? More College Counseling

• School Safety and Civil Rights in Pennsylvania  [Podcast]

• Q&A on School Discipline for Pennsylvania School Leaders

• PA Model Memorandum of Understanding with ACLU Annotations

• Student Arrests in Pennsylvania: A Closer Look 

• There Are Ways to End the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Child Advocates offer Solutions in Pittsburgh​

• Pa. Study Asks: Has 'Zero Tolerance' Gone Too Far? 

• Pennsylvania Commission Releases Informative Study of School Discipline 

• ACLU Report Finds Disparities in Discipline for Minority, Disabled Students 

• Keeping Misbehaving Students Off the Streets, But Not Off the Hook

• Schools Innovate Around Behavior as Suspensions Fall into Disfavor 

• Racial Disparities in School Discipline [Podcast]

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Major Reports

• Disparate and Punitive Impact of Exclusionary Practices on Students of Color, Students with Disabilities and LGBTQ Students in Pennsylvania Public Schools, April 2021

• Disrupting Pathways to Juvenile Justice for Youth in Allegheny County, 2020

• Police and Pennsylvania's Schools: What Education Leaders Need to Know, October 2019

• Just Discipline and the School-to-Prison Pipeline in Greater Pittsburgh​

• Beyond Zero Tolerance: Discipline and Policing in Pennsylvania Public Schools, 2015

• Joint State Government Commission Report to the Pennsylvania Legislature on Zero Tolerance School Discipline Policies, Joint State Government Commission, October 2016, report of a one year study commissioned by the PA House recommends restricting suspensions and expulsions of students under the age of 10, minimizing the use of exclusionary discipline and law enforcement, adjusting language in certain disciplinary policies to make them narrower or clearer, and diverting funds from SRO programs to student support services. See executive summary, full report, analysis, and news article

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​Early Childhood Education​

• SRC Bans Suspension of Kindergartners and Students Who Violate Dress Code 

• Philadelphia School District Ends Suspensions from Kindergarten through Second Grade,June 21, 2018. Kindergarten, first, and second grade students shall not be suspended from school unless their actions result in serious bodily injury. See new policy, administrative procedures, and press release.

• Pittsburgh Public Bans Suspensions For Students Younger Than 3rd Grade For Nonviolent Offenses​, effective September 1, 2018. See policy.

• Why Is It So Hard to Stop Suspending Kindergarteners?

• Discipline of Early Learners – Summary of Laws, District Policies and Federal Resources

• Promoting Inclusion and Reducing Expulsion and Suspension, web portal to resources from Pennsylvania's Office of Childhood Development and Early Learning

• Policy Statement: Reduction of Expulsion and Suspension in Early Childhood Programs in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Office of Childhood Development and Early Learning, effective July 1, 2017

• Policy Statement: Inclusion of All Children in Early Childhood Programs in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Office of Childhood Development and Early Learning, effective July 1, 2017

• Resolution of Pennsylvania's State Interagency Coordination Council: Ban Exclusionary Discipline in Early Learning Programs, April 6, 2016

• ​Preschool to Prison Pipeline: Exclusionary Discipline in Preschool Programs, presentation to Pennsylvania's Office of Child Development and Early Learning leadership retreat by the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Education Law Center of PA, November 2016  

• Pittsburgh Parents Demand Change to Stop School Pushout 

The Rights of Students

• Know Your Rights: A Handbook for Public School Students in Pennsylvania​

ACLU of PA's guide covers: First Amendment rights, privacy, use of social media, student searches, dealing with police, the right to be treated fairly, and the right to have access to sexual health information. Information is presented in a Q&A format with tips and resources. 

• 2021 Back-to-School Guide for Pennsylvania Public School Students, Education Law Center, August 2021

• Student Discipline in Pennsylvania, Education Law Center, August 2019

Fact sheet provides parents and students with an overview of Pennsylvania law pertaining to suspensions, expulsions, and transfers to alternative schools in public and charter schools.

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Policing and Juvenile Justice

• ACLU Recommendations to the Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice Taskforce, April 2021

• The Role of Police Officers in Schools [Podcast]

• From School to Jail: How Hundreds of Kids Get Arrested in Pittsburgh Schools Every Year

• Pittsburgh School Board Votes Against Arming District Police

• Pittsburgh Public Schools Police Chief Laments Board Decision Not to Arm School Officers

• How Likely is Pittsburgh to Arm its School Officers?

• Pittsburgh Public Schools Consider Arming School Police

• Board Members Raise Concerns as Pittsburgh Public Schools Police Ask for Guns

• Q&A on School Policing for Pennsylvania School Leaders

• Don't Arm School Police 

• Harrisburg Mayor is on the Wrong Side of Cops in the Classroom 

• Philly District Orders School Police to Stay Out of Level 1 Offenses

• Philadelphia Youth Advocacy Groups Push for a Complaint System about School Police Officers

Philadelphia student groups pushed district administrators to implement a complaint system district-wide for school police officers and were successful. The system was implemented in April 2017.

• In Philadelphia, School Police Outnumber Counselors

• Limiting Police Involvement in Low-Level Violations of the Code of Conduct

Philadelphia School District Police Response to Code of Conduct Offenses School police will not be dispatched to address low level code of conduct violations.

• Alternatives to Arrest: Keeping Kids in School and Out of Court

Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program Multi-agency program provides an alternative to arrest. MOU and Program Brochure

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